Edin Terzić: 5 things on the coach who took Borussia Dortmund to the Champions League final
At the age of just 41, Edin Terzić has already achieved feats that some head coaches can only dream of whilst in charge at Borussia Dortmund.
bundesliga.com has all you need to know about the born and raised Dortmund fan, who led his club to DFB Cup glory over RB Leipzig in 2021, to second place in the Bundesliga in 2022/23 and all the way to the 2023/24 UEFA Champions League final...
1) He's a student of the game
Born in 1982 to parents who had emigrated from Yugoslavia, Terzić was raised in the town of Menden - about a half-hour drive from the home of five-time Bundesliga champions BVB. A forward in his youth, he played as a semi-pro in the regional leagues to help pay for his sports science studies at Ruhr University in Bochum. It was while on that course that he met his wife Kora and current Germany U20 head coach Hannes Wolf.
Both men would soon end up working at Dortmund, with Terzić rewarded for learning the ins and outs of coaching from a relatively young age.
"I studied for my UEFA A Licence and met the chief scout of Borussia Dortmund, and a couple of months later he called me and offered me a job," he once explained. "In 2010, I stopped playing and started working as a coach with Dortmund."
2) He worked under Jürgen Klopp
Dortmund fans won't need reminding that 2010 was a pretty good time to be around the club. Current Liverpool boss Jürgen Klopp had arrived at the 1997 European champions two years earlier, and slowly began building a squad capable of challenging for top honours.
Terzić, meanwhile, began combining his role as a scout with helping out his old pal Wolf - who would go on to become head coach of VfB Stuttgart and Hamburg - as assistant coach of BVB's U17, U19, and U23 teams.
While he was learning his trade and identifying players who could improve the first team, Terzić also got to see how Klopp's side - spearheaded by Mario Götze, Mats Hummels and Robert Lewandowski - took Germany and Europe by storm. Dortmund won back-to-back league titles between 2010 and 2012 - as well as the DFB Cup in 2012 - before losing 2-1 to Bayern Munich in the 2013 UEFA Champions League final at Wembley.
Watch: How Klopp transformed Dortmund
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3) He worked in the English Premier League
Terzić had just been appointed the Dortmund U16 head coach when - a couple of weeks into the summer of 2013 - he informed the club of an offer he felt was too good to turn down.
It came about because of a chance encounter some time previously. With a mother from Croatia, Terzić would have felt at home when he arrived in the country on a scouting mission for BVB. Over dinner, an agent he met there said he would introduce him to his brother - who turned out to be then Croatia manager Slaven Bilić.
"I didn't think about it until I was at a game in Sweden and three days before the European Championship in 2012 I got a phone call," Terzić told the West Ham website. "I didn't respond. Then I got another phone call and didn't respond. Then I got a message: 'Please call me back. Regards, Slaven Bilić.'"
"So I thought I'd better call back! I called back, and that's the story of how we met each other in 2012."
When former Karlsruher, Everton and West Ham defender Bilić was appointed manager of Turkish top-flight side Besiktas in 2013, he invited Terzic to join him.
Two years later, the pair linked up again in London when Bilić moved to West Ham. They led the Hammers to seventh and 11th-placed finishes in the Premier League between August 2015 and November 2017.
"For someone of my age and my background, it was unbelievable to have those experiences," Terzić told Ruhr Nachrichten. "The time I spent in Turkey and England was very valuable for me."
4) He's loved by his players
Terzić took over from Lucien Favre on an interim basis midway through 2020/21, and revitalised a Dortmund team which was struggling to spark into life. Under his guidance, BVB clinched the DFB Cup title and qualified for the UEFA Champions League.
That success came from Terzić's management style, which saw him get the best out of the likes of Erling Haaland, Jadon Sancho and club captain Marco Reus, and the harmony in the dressing room was one of the main reasons for their transformation.
"Edin Terzić did a great job. He took over the team in December when it was half dead and he brought it to life," said Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke. "We play at high intensity, with new energy and new life," echoed American star Gio Reyna.
In 2021/22, Terzić moved into the newly created role of technical director and extended his contract until 2025, with Marco Rose coming in as head coach. However, the former Borussia Mönchengladbach boss was relieved of his duties after only a season in charge, and Terzić was offered the top job. The Dortmund hierarchy hoped his popularity with players and fans, plus his long-term experience at the club, would allow them to launch a stronger title bid in 2022/23.
It turned out to be perfect move at the perfect time. Despite BVB going into the long winter break in sixth, sparkling form in 2023 saw them surge right to the top of the table as they smashed in 56 goals in 18 matches. Terzic was able to integrate thrilling youngsters like Karim Adeyemi and Donyell Malen while retaining the benefits of experienced hands like Reus and Hummels.
However, the final day of the season ended in heartbreak for Borussia Dortmund, as they drew 2-2 at home to Mainz whilst Bayern won late on in Cologne to clinch the Meisterschale in the final minutes of the campaign. After a blistering second half of the season, Terzić and his team came up just short in the title race, finishing as runners-up due to Bayern’s superior goal difference.
Watch: Edin Terzic cheered by the Yellow Wall after 2022/23 last-day drama
The 2023/24 season did not go as well on the domestic front for Terzić and Dortmund, as they dropped down to fifth place and had to watch on as Bayern’s period of dominance was finally ended by unbeaten league champions and DFB Cup winners Bayer Leverkusen. On this occasion, the fifth-place finish was sufficient to qualify for the Champions League thanks to Germany’s strong UEFA coefficient, a figure to which Dortmund themselves were significantly contributing thanks to a remarkable run in Europe’s elite club competition.
BVB progressed as Group F winners despite a tough draw which saw them face PSG, AC Milan and Newcastle, recording important victories at the San Siro and St James’ Park in the process.
In the knockout stages, Terzić did a particularly good job of getting both the players and the fans pumped for the home legs. Spurred on by the famous Yellow Wall, Dortmund won at home in their second legs against PSV and Atletico Madrid to secure victory on aggregate and progress to the final four, where they were reunited with PSG.
After drawing at home and losing away to the French champions in the group stages, their semi-final result signified the progress Terzić and BVB had made in the second half of the season, particularly in terms of their defensive resolve. They won 1-0 in both Dortmund and Paris to reach the final at Wembley, where they faced off against former player Jude Bellingham and Real Madrid.
Eleven years after their last UCL final appearance, which was also at Wembley, Dortmund put up a good fight against Los Blancos and created some good chances. Ultimately, the Champions League veterans came away with the silverware as Real won 2-0 on the night, but the achievements of Terzić and his side and their road to the final will not be forgotten quickly.
5) He's Dortmund through and through
When Terzić took over from Favre in December 2020 at the age of 38, it represented a huge opportunity. It was also a rather surreal experience for someone so attached to the club.
"It's an unbelievable situation," he said at his first press conference. "Most people know that I come from the region. I was born 30 kilometres from here, and I came to the stadium for the first time as a nine-year-old. After that it was clear which team my heart was beating for! But despite that, I never dared dream that I would find myself in such a position at the club."
Having started out as a fan in the Südtribüne, little could Terzić have imagined he would work his way up the ranks - academy coach, scout, assistant coach, caretaker manager, technical director and finally head coach - before taking his boyhood club all the way to the Champions League final.
Terzić stepped down as Dortmund head coach in June 2024, ending with a record of 75 wins, 24 draws and 29 defeats from 128 fixtures. Speaking at the time, the 41-year-old promised the fans that they haven't seen the last of him: "It's not goodbye, but till next time." After taking on numerous different roles in five years at the club, he bid farewell to Die Schwarzgelben for the time being, and given his achievements during his time at BVB, the future looks bright for Edin Terzić.
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